The Politics of Unfunded Mandates

How do lower-level governments respond to unfunded or underfunded mandates in the particular political structure of the unitary government in China? In public administration practices, unfunded or underfunded mandates can include (1) operating budget mandates that require local governments to finance particular functional operations such as a salary or bonus increase for public servants and (2) capital budget mandates that require local governments to finance long-term outlays or projects such as building water treatment plants to comply with new national water standards. This book examines the impact of policy and program mandates from higher-level governments to lower-level governments when the higher-level government provides inadequate funding to pay for those mandates. The main focus of this book is the question of how governments at lower levels respond, the extent to which they comply or resist, and the techniques they use to adapt to these mandates in various policy areas. Describeing the politics of unfunded mandates and the intergovernmental relations in China, this book analyzes the politics between different levels of Chinese governments.